Compromised
by yellowscream
Summary: Somewhere in Season 2 and then diverges, some spoilers, some speculation. There will be pain. No promise of comfort. A poisoned whitelighter is in danger, but what if he does not want to be saved.
1. Chapter 1

Compromised

Maggie finds Harry feverishly working on translating the book of elders. Literally feverish. She tries to stop him, to get him to rest; but he needs to find answers. His skin shows the taint of the assassin's poison. She gets him to sit down, offering to get him some tea.

He is having difficulty in speaking and breathing. He is upset, but out of habit pulls on his old fashioned habits to try and thank her and tell her not to worry; she sees pass that even without her magical abilities, but when he collapses, she screams for help.

He can hear Maggie calling for help, and he wants to go to her but he can't, he is just too tired. He can't even open his eyes. He is struggling to breathe.

He hears his name being called in different voices and tones; one calls him home. He opens his eyes and he doesn't know where he is but there is a tall woman in the dimmed light, a delicate hand softly grasping his hand and then caresses his cheek. He leans into the touch. On some level he knows this is not real, he sees a face like his but this is not the Harry Greenwood that he knows. It isn't the James Westwell that he knows either. He would almost say it is the assassin but he doesn't see the same dark intent to kill. He knows not to trust unquestioningly, when he is told. "We are waiting for you. Time to come home. Come home to me." Harry thinks he must be delirious; he can almost understand why Macy had described his doppelganger as seductive, or maybe it is only his subconscious? He doesn't want to fight, he just wants to rest his weary head. Arms embrace him, calling him home, he feels so small in them, so safe. "She is waiting. Come home to us."

He is disoriented when he finds himself looking up to Maggie's face. "Harry stay awake!" He wants to reassure her that everything is going to be fine, but a sudden flare of pain takes his breath away. He has enough control to keep himself from saying something rude but his gasp of pain, strikes like a knife to the heart for his charge.

He opens his eyes briefly and sees her face filling with tears. He hears Mel's voice behind her.

He closes his eyes, but keeps breathing and he feels himself once again being pulled in different directions. Maggie is holding his hand but lets him go as she helps her sister assemble various items on the table next to him, and the next moment he is gone.

"Did he just orb?"

"Where did he go?"

The two sisters call in one voice "HARRY!"

He reappears in the same spot, but he is getting worse.

Mel snatches a cuff from the table. She doesn't need their delirious whitelighter making any unexpected trips. She snaps it on him. Mel instructs him to drink a potion which he takes with some difficulty but manages to force it down his throat. He breathes a little easier and glows faintly before he passes into a magically induced sleep.

Undisclosed location with unidentified parties.

"What did you do? He was here!"

"He was but he was also called back before we could bind him. He will be too drained to make another attempt today."

"You just want to keep him away from me. You want him for yourself."

"No. I want him here as much as you do."

"I need him, the last of the whitelighters."

"He won't come willingly not when he still feels he has to protect those witches."

"He will come if he thinks he is protecting them."

"He won't stay. He will always try to go back to them."

Conjuring a simple looking ring of glowing green, the other declared "No. He won't. Not with this."


	2. Chapter 2

Macy got back to the command center and wrote a name on the board. "What happened to Harry?" she asked Mel who was working on the Book of Elders.

"He's running a fever. Did you call for him earlier?"

"No. Why?"

"He orbed out while being in some kind of fit, but Maggie and I were able to call him back." Mel indicated the cuff on Harry's wrist. "I cuffed him so he wouldn't go disappearing."

"The poison is still affecting him?" Macy could see the traces on his skin.

Mel nodded. "Let's wake him up and get him home. Harry."

"Harry." Macy joined her sister in gently waking their exhausted white lighter.

He woke up but clearly needed more rest, but it would be better at home, rather than here at the command center. He asked that the cuff be removed because it was also affecting his own healing. Wheels began to turn in Macy's head when she heard him say that. All this time they were thinking that Harry's severed connection was a point in their favor as an independent white lighter, but what if this was a symptom of magical malnutrition? He was constantly pushing himself as if he had to prove that he was still useful to the sisters, even with his diminished capabilities. Maybe the Elders tied the white lighters existence to their own to address this form of magical anemia.

Harry choose to crash on the sofa in the living room instead of heading up the stairs to the attic. Macy shared her theory with her sisters. Mel remembered the Sarcana using hellfire to aid Fiona's recovery from Tartarus. Maggie missed the Parker she had known, who would have used all his resources to help her just because she asked and he would have gotten her hellfire to save Harry if that was what was needed. Macy missed having access to laboratory resources it would have helped diagnosis.

"No." Harry said when they proposed steal Hellfire for him. "Even if Hellfire had healing capabilities, which I doubt, I don't think the Sarcana just gave it to Fiona in raw form." He looked pointedly at Mel.

"No," Mel agreed "she was in some kind of healing chamber."

"Which we do not have, and even if we did, we wouldn't know how to operate it."

"We can't just let you continue like this!" Maggie was considering asking Abigael for help but knew better than to bring it up with Macy in the room. "We almost lost you today, if Mel hadn't walked in when she did."

"It hasn't killed me yet, I just need to recover from what is already in my system." He declared thinking that this discussion was over. He rested his head on a pillow and closed his eyes.

"We can't have him continue like this."

"What has the Book of Elders revealed about white lighters?"

"Well after finding Helen, Harry stopped translating anything about white lighters."

"What? Why?"

"When he passed the cipher over sections pertaining to white lighters they disappeared."

"And once again we are screwed by the Elders."

"Who is Helen?"

"Harry found the Elders first attempt at creating a white lighter in an asylum. He also found her dark lighter there. The Elders had an arrangement with the asylum for their care."

"And he just left them there?"

"And what would you have me do?" Harry suddenly asked, unable to pretend the he was resting any longer. "I can't heal what was done to her. I can't." He would get no rest here, his thoughts turned to the attic as temporary sanctuary, he wanted to orb so badly but he didn't need further complications.

"Come on Harry sit down, before you fall down." Mel guided him back down.

"I'll get you some tea." Maggie said as she turned towards to the kitchen.

"I don't need tea." He sighed. "Thank you but no."

"Harry you have to let us help you." Mel admonished him as she got him to sit on the couch.

"I am the one who is supposed to help you three. I am supposed to keep you safe. I should be-" He went silent as something caught his attention.

"You are a part of this family. We are in this together."

"You're hurt." He declared with a hint of dismay. "Macy! What happened?"

"It's nothing, it was after I saved-"

Harry had knelt by her leg and healed it immediately. He began coughing as soon as he was finished.

"Harry you don't have to heal every slight injury."

"You must always be in top fighting form, demons will exploit ever possible weakness."

"Take you own advice, we need you in top form too."

"Good night." He said as he laid back down and sleep claimed him.

"Good night."


End file.
